ALL BALL NERVE CENTER — Last night I played pick-up basketball with a longtime NBA employee, and our discussion eventually turned to what it is like for us, civilians, to play basketball against actual NBA players. Both he and I have been lucky enough to have a few opportunities to be on a basketball court with NBA players, and the truth is when someone that good decides they want to shut you down, they can do exactly that, easily.

A few weeks ago, Grizzlies owner Robert Pera issued a public challenge to Grizzlies G Tony Allen…

Hey GrindFather @aa000G9 — How about we play 1:1 in Memphis before training camp start? I'll spot you a couple baskets to make it a game!

And so it is on: Tomorrow, Allen and Pera are playing to raise money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While this event is closed to the public, they’ll be streaming the battle live on grizzlies.com. (I’m still waiting for Grizz VP John Hollinger to release his statistical analysis of this matchup.) I’m assuming Allen is the heavy favorite here, especially considering he’s one of the NBA’s best one-on-one defenders. But perhaps he’ll go a little easy on Pera — you never want to show up your boss.

One Comment

I like the ideal of the challenge. I think it’s a good way to donate money to a organazation. If you have the type of owner, who has palyed B-ball at one time, it gives them the opportunity to make some money, without going directly into their pockets all the time. Memphis, owner may have started something good for all teams. I would love to see, all owners & GM’s, coaches come together and have a All star weekend for the fans. Because, we have a lot of ex-nba players, coaching and some of them have never maid a All star team. NBA could use some of the player that didn’t make the All star team, and let them play the game. It would be fun to see, players like Shaq, Mike, Robert Pera, Tyrone lue, Harrel Ellison and so on……